Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005 – 20 years ago. One of the most devastating disasters in American history, its aftermath disrupted every element of life in New Orleans, none more so than the city’s K-12 schools. One hundred and ten school buildings, 87 percent of those in operation, were damaged by the storm. Virtually the entire city population was displaced.
Education leaders did not know when or where families would return home, but they knew that they had to open schools quickly to ensure citizens could return. This opened the door for state policymakers to radically transform public education in the city.
Pressure to change the New Orleans education system had been building for years before the storm. In 2004, one year before Katrina, only half of high school students were graduating. Less than a quarter of seniors were enrolling in college. School board members and officials were indicted on corruption charges based on millions of unaccounted-for dollars.
After Katrina, almost all New Orleans public schools were taken over by the state and by the end of state control 13 years later, all of the city’s publicly-funded schools were converted into autonomous charter schools. The district’s entire teaching staff was fired. The union contract was allowed to expire. Almost all attendance zones were eliminated so families could choose any publicly funded school in the city. The years immediately following Katrina were marked by schools opening, closing or transitioning to a charter school. “It was a crazy, terrible time,” said J. Celeste Lay, a political science professor at Tulane University, in The Hechinger Report.
The state legislature, with support from the governor, established the state-run Recovery School District (RSD) to manage the schools under its control, including all that were converted to autonomous charter schools. The reformers created a Portfolio Management Model (PMM). This plan resulted in the district having little authority over teaching and learning in the city’s schools.
Academic and school management decisions were left to schools instead of the district. Most of the charters adopted a “no excuses” approach to teaching students with strict behavioral rules and high academic standards. Schools hired and fired teachers, unrestricted by tenure rules, certification standards or salary schedules. The state regularly shut down schools that did not raise student achievement. Forty of the city’s 80 schools were replaced.
The educational recovery in New Orleans showed that reforms were achieving success, Douglas N. Harris, an economist with Tulane University, told The Hechinger Report. Student test scores increased through 2013 and then plateaued. College attendance improved from 23 percent of students to almost 34 percent. The high school graduation rate increased by 9 to 13 percentage points. College degrees increased by 2 or 3 percent. Before Katrina, only ten percent of New Orleans students obtained a college degree within five years.
Circumstances particular to New Orleans made the reforms more likely to succeed, said Harris. Student performance was notably low to start, and “it’s easier to improve whenever you’re at the bottom,” he said. The city benefited from an influx of idealistic young teachers who wanted to help rebuild education. More talent came to the city, according to Harris. Tutoring helped students, especially older high school students who received years of individualized attention to make up for learning losses, Paul Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, told The Hechinger Report.
The school system is now comprised, with one exception, of charter schools. Instead of mainly being controlled by the superintendent and local school board, New Orleans schools are run by about 30 nonprofit organizations. No schools are receiving an “F” letter grade, 79 percent of students graduate on time, and 65 percent of graduates continue to college. Students can attend schools across the city — there are no more zoned public schools. Almost a quarter of students choose to attend private schools. The number of K-12 schools and students has dropped by almost half, largely due to population decline.
There is a gradual move to returning schools to local governance under the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), which regained control of district schools in 2018. All schools are now under the local control of the OPSB, including charter contracts, in a process called reunification.
The opening of a 300-student K-8 public school in August, 2024, was the first time New Orleans opened its own school since Katrina. More permanent, traditional neighborhood schools are expected to be slowly established. There is sentiment growing in New Orleans and among newer board members that in the new system of choice and innovation, one choice should be a school run in a traditional way by the school district directly, Carlos Zervigon, a member of the OPSB, told The Hechinger Report.
State takeovers are becoming more common across the U.S. As of May 2025, 35 states had laws authorizing states to take over local districts. State agencies in at least 25 states have assumed control of districts or individual schools since 1988 due to longstanding academic and financial difficulties. It is important to recognize legal, political, and local issues that make each takeover different from the New Orleans experience. For example, The Texas Education Agency began a state takeover of the Houston Independent School Districts in 2023 and it is ongoing. Many believe charter school expansion will be a part of the process. Houston is the 4th largest city in the U.S. and the largest city in Texas, with more than three times the number of students as New Orleans. More than 60 percent of the city’s 65,000 students had disappeared by 2006. Today there are about 50,000.
The Hechinger Report
